Olympus Coliseum (Chapter 25-33)

And now 9 chapters for the arc, making up for the 7 last time *looks strangely at chapters*

Because what's a KH fic without going to Olympus Coliseum (and getting really sick of the music... or is that just me with the games?)

Hmm, upon a deeper look it occurs to me that Chapter 24 could have fallen in the TWTNW arc because while they're just sitting outside Olympus Coliseum, they don't actually leave, they just all realize that it's Xigbar they're looking for.  Which means I'm still on the 8-chapters-an-arc thing.  (Why do I care about this?!?!)

Oh man.  Zack and Olympus Coliseum.  Did I drag Zack and Aerith to Olympus Coliseum on purpose, just so Zack would have to deal with that? Yes.  Yes I did.

Olympus, the only world where they've turned Heartless killing literally into a sport that anyone can do.  And then Phil's just all super happy when actual warriors (not Herc) show up and steal the show for a bit.  But like... no one ever seems to be in the audience.  Not even when I envision it.  What's up with that? I mean, I'm sure there's an audience.

Meanwhile, Aqua, Terra, and Ven are getting into Xemnas' room for the journal.  And they run into a Remnant, who's mostly just there to mess with them than anything else, because he feels he has better people to vessel.  (That's totally a verb now.)  (From the tumblr post "that's my vessel you're vessling").  Wait... no... that was earlier.  I thought I'd already written about that, but I thought that maybe the post didn't save.  But I'm leaving it for the vessling comment.  Nope, instead they ran into the darkness in TWTNW collapsing in on itself.  Fun times.  That place is condemned.  And Larxene and Marluxia are still there.

And then Hades just goes and whips everyone out of the fighting arena... except Aerith, Kairi, and Namine... who he has sort of a personal vendetta against at the moment.  Considering they were the ones who tipped Mickey off that Hades was even going to attack Disney Castle in the first place.  Though, why he would bother going up against Namine when the last time she started messing with his brain is beyond me.  Axel's basically right when he says that that combination of women is scary.

I love Denzel and Yuffie bonding.  Party because Yuffie's been the youngest one there up until now, and then here comes Denzel and he's someone that Yuffie (not necessarily has to but) feels she needs to keep an eye out for.  And he's not feeling too well, but he's sort of interested in her tennis ball, so she'll play nice because that's what Aerith would want her to do.  (Yuffie's head-Aerith voice is very strong).  And then Denzel snaps out of it and starts talking about rescuing the other kids from the slums and Yuffie gets to have an adult moment when she calls Cloud out on his crap.  "Go deal with Sephiroth, Cloud.  Quit being a worry-wort.  Don't pretend I can't see that. Gosh."

I love the battle-scene with Hades.  I love how Aerith thinks during it.  I love Namine and Kairi's fighting-styles.  I love Tifa's reaction when she and Cloud show up to the party.  Tifa and Cloud's quiet little conversation.  Aerith screaming at Hades that picking on Cloud was not what she meant by telling him to find a new hobby.   Zack screaming at Phil to take the barriers down.  Trivia: After the one battle with Angeal, Phil fixed it so that there was an override on the barriers to prevent things like this from happening.  Except Hades is overriding it.  And then Namine impresses upon him that he needs to go the heck away.

Then a Remnant shows up.  And this is the closest that Zack is going to get to one for a while.  Though then Sephiroth shows up and starts dealing with the Remnant because how dare the Remnant try and hurt Cloud.  This was like, the day where everyone tried to go after Cloud and failed day.

Things I'm really okay with:
-Xion singing a song for Demyx's not-so-useful journal
-HB being some sort of base that everyone keeps coming back to and it being this constant in and out of people
-Kairi and Namine using their telepathy for simple things like, "eh, I'll let you know if anything exciting happens where I'm at, kay?"
-Xion not having all of the appropriate social cues and being horribly rude on accident
-Rinoa insisting to Denzel that she won't let the Shadows hurt him
-Shera and Yuffie's relationship to each other
-Denzel playing with Yuffie's tennis ball and Yuffie telling herself that Aerith would tell her it's a good thing
-Denzel playing with Yuffie's tennis ball
-Aerith taking the battle with Hades in stride
-Aerith creating a Barrier with a very Avatar-Aang-type move.
-Cloud telling Hades good luck on getting his soul because Sephiroth's laid a pretty big claim on it
-Cloud trying to figure out how Tifa and Vincent know each other
-Cloud saying he should help Sephiroth defeat the Remnant because he's less of a threat
-Riku teaching Namine to drive